I could already feel the many eyes stabbing me...Yes, the title says "ninja" haha and no I'm not a ninja nor do I plan on being one any time soon. The quote above is actually from Naruto himself, believe it or not (see what I did there? lol). I did plan on writing this blog and making it an anime blog, but this will actually be my first anime-related entry! Yay! I feel obligated for some reason to discuss why I personally enjoyed watching Naruto as much as my friends may have judged me, but I won't be discussing the "themes" and "lessons". That would take forever, and let's be honest here, it wouldn't be very interesting to read. I'm simply going to talk about how it impacted me as a child watching this show. I don't watch it anymore, but behind the crazy jutsus and Naruto's ridiculous persistence in trying to train harder to become "the hokage", I always noticed the several themes hidden under this show that we can actually take and learn from and enjoyed it. It isn't just a silly plot about Naruto trying to prove the world wrong, or just a story about friendship, and although I'm not going to discuss all these themes, this will basically be kind of like a confession post. This is the kind of kid I was.

I felt like watching Naruto brought me into a different realm that sounded far more interesting than my own ordinary life. It really changed me.

Alright, so I confess. I was obsessed with Naruto...but so what? People judged me all the time, thought I was sick in the head (which I am still questioning whether I really was even to this day), and looked down on me. Sure I somehow convinced myself that I was a part of the Leaf village as well, made my own headband, and did all the hand movements copying all the cool jutsus they had, but to me, the show Naruto really was more than the action-packed epic fighting scenes. I won't say that Naruto (the character) was a role model I looked up to (that kid has is own problems), but the way that he would do whatever it takes to protect his friends, the way he kept fighting and never gave up inspired me to be a better person. Friends, were nothing more than people I enjoyed being around, but caring for them or standing up for them when they're being teased was something I never did. I never thought it was in my power to do so. Every time I tried to get better at something such as playing piano or basketball, I felt like the people better than me were always going to be better than me, and that I should just give up.

Naruto used to be some nobody that sucked at just about everything, and even then he never lost hope.

Here's the full picture of the drawing I drew: (click for full image)


Today, I sit here as an ex-ninja, I mean I used to be pretty good with my martial art skills, and pretty good at handling plastic nun chucks (I really wasn't), but today I don't exactly display my own strength through my actions. You know how they say "actions speak louder than words"? In Naruto, the words these characters say are set in stone where no one can defy their way of living, so their actions and words are equally as strong. Today I'm not a naive child nor am I a cynical adult that sits by and  judges life and the actions of others, expecting things to happen a certain way because I apparently know how everything works. Realistically, I know that there are times where you'll try as many times as you can, and nothing happens. I really do believe that, however, if you try as hard as you can and put all your dedication to it, and it's something you love doing, you will succeed. I'm a normal human being, an average person who cherishes the people close to her, lives life by pursuing her dreams without having any obstacles put her down, and has the confidence to believe in herself.

That's the ninja way, my ninja way! 

Haha, I loved hearing that line because seeing all these characters have goals of becoming stronger, finding a friend, protecting family...these goals inspired me to have my own way of living. I wanted to find a purpose in life myself, and thankfully, I'll know to never back down in the process of doing so.

2 Comments:

 Pingu said...

Aww, I love this ;v;
Especially how you managed to integrate quotes from the anime into the post hahaha.
I don't watch Naruto anymore either, but I still love it and continue to read the manga (well I'm catching up currently)

July 5, 2013 at 4:15 PM  

 Marie-Laure said...

Thank you! haha, I was really worried about using quotes from Naruto before writing this entry, but it has so many simple yet great quotes it was really hard to choose just a couple! ^^ I need to find the time to catch up to reading the manga as well. There are a lot of chapters I need to read xD

July 6, 2013 at 6:14 AM  

Post a Comment

+ +